Wales V Republic of Ireland - Cardiff - 6th September 2018 - UEFA Nations League

[dynamo kerry]

I'm dubious about the extend to which this can be called a competitive match.
So far not really competitive anyway...

[Cathalsmart]

The long ball there sums Ireland up, players haven’t a clue what they should be doing.

[dynamo kerry]

Actually I'm a little more optimistic. Christie looks ok going forward. He's put on weight too.. stronger looking. Just a bit unfamiliar as a group. No clear creative outlet... not awful considering the circumstsnces. Bale produces a fab goal yet again.

[passinginterest]

This either gets really embarrassing or turns into an amazing comeback. Seemed to be playing ok for the 10mins before that. Oddly look very vulnerable at the back where you'd think the team is strongest.

[pineapple stu]

I presume the optimism is long gone at this stage?

This is predictably dire

[backstothewall]

I think tonight might be the end for Martin

[passinginterest]

Watching on S4C, can't understand a word, but they're having great craic!

[dynamo kerry]

I presume the optimism is long gone at this stage?

This is predictably dire
Certainly less impressed than I was...
No straws to clutch here...

[dynamo kerry]

All.of them belting forward can't be helping. May as well blood some players now..

[shakermaker1982]

They are trying to play football and look what happens....

[TrapAPony]

I think tonight might be the end for Martin

It should be but what's the bet it won't be. The FAI won't sack him, he will have to leave on his own accord. A disgrace of a performance. Nothing has been learned since the Danish game.

[irishfan86]

The combination of Hendrick and Hourihane centrally makes no sense to me. We need someone in there capable of protecting the back four. Meyler should have started.

[osarusan]

Watching on S4C, can't understand a word, but they're having great craic!

It's gas listening to them, with the odd football-related English word coming through every so often.

[sbgawa]

Find it hard to care we are so bad with such a brutal manager that qualifying is a waste of time and likely only to lead to embarrassment on the pitch and another award for the "best fans in the world'

[Fixer82]

The combination of Hendrick and Hourihane centrally makes no sense to me. We need someone in there capable of protecting the back four. Meyler should have started.

Yes Meyler should have started, sitting in front of the centre backs.

[shakermaker1982]

To top it off we’ve got to listen to Andrews!!!!

[Fixer82]

Reminiscent of Trap era.
Qualified for one tournament and lost playoff for another.
Then the wheels quickly fell off.

And we were in transition then.

We really don’t have a good pool of players but it seems we’ve no formula to give it a good go any more.

[tricky_colour]

The combination of Hendrick and Hourihane centrally makes no sense to me. We need someone in there capable of protecting the back four. Meyler should have started.

definitely when we put on an attacking midfield we get slaughtered.

[tricky_colour]

I've only just found a stream luckily. :)

[tricky_colour]

Bit of cultural appropriation there from the Welsh defender with the hair.

[Fixer82]

This Ampadu kid has a serious future. 17 and looks the coolest customer on the field

[ger121]

Hope this is the end for MO’N. Hammered in our last 2 competitive games and look clueless with the ball.

[passinginterest]

Each time we create a decent chance they just go up the other end and produce a clinical finish.

[pineapple stu]

This is Liechtenstein standard now

[osarusan]

This is shocking,and will probably get worse. The positioning is just dreadful, getting pulled all over the place so easily.

From the very start, the team looked like they just expected to get beaten.

[shakermaker1982]

Ward needs to learn how to close down. It’s a useful skill if you are a defender.

[passinginterest]

It's a bit like watching an 11 a side Astro league team, a load of lads who don't really know each other but are willing to run around and give it a go, no shape and when it starts going wrong nobody really has a clue how to fix it.

[tricky_colour]

It's only a mickey mouse competition anyway, I am surprised Wales are taking it seriously.

[passinginterest]

Comback is on!! Great finish by Williams too.

[dynamo kerry]

It's disappointing to see them get punished so badly but in a way it may be for the best. Some said the Denmark result was a freak but really something needs to change for sure. I remember years ago players saying Martin was not good on tactics but more of a motivator. With the players we have we definitely now need a tactical genius . .

Ps. Good hustle for the goal

[tricky_colour]

Yes get in!!

[bennocelt]

This Ampadu kid has a serious future. 17 and looks the coolest customer on the field

Father an Irish under 21 player too, he is having a cracking game.
And then we leave G Burke on the bench..........

[dynamo kerry]

It's only a mickey mouse competition anyway, I am surprised Wales are taking it seriously.
Has an impact on seedings for the qualifiers...

[pineapple stu]

These are the cracks that have been papered over for three last few years.

I fear this is the new normal now

[backstothewall]

The good news is our next game is against amateurs and futsal players. Which should help us keep the score down a bit.

[tricky_colour]

We're back!! :)

[dynamo kerry]

These are the cracks that have been papered over for three last few years.

I fear this is the new normal now

I.dont think it has to be. It's a new team I think it's time for a new manager. I definitely believe these guys are capable of better than this. I don't think we would suddenly thrash Wales but there's a lot of middle ground here.

[pineapple stu]

It doesn't have to be, sure

And there's injuries.

But this - and the Denmark game - are results which were long overdue. I think they'll be more common now too.

We're really poor

[shakermaker1982]

I imagine there is going to world war 3 in the Irish press over the next 72 hours but at the end of the day Wales are able to field players who earn their wages at clubs like Real Madrid, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs. Unless something drastic happens at grassroots level this is going to be the norm.

Let’s be honest this is a PL team against a Championship side. The only way we could have nicked a point was how we played last year against them.

The players are trying to play. It hasn’t been hoofball tonight and some passages have been decent. Robinson could have had 2 goals (like what I’ve seen) and Wales have scored 4 quality goals. Not playing a holding midfielder has not helped matters. Centre mid has been garbage.

[jbyrne]

These are the cracks that have been papered over for three last few years.

I fear this is the new normal now

youve been saying this for as long as i remember.... bound to be right eventually given our playing resources. during the 3 yrs you refer to we have had impressive wins against italy, germany, bosnia, wales and austria...... we'll be back

[tricky_colour]

Ha ha my stream played the Irish goal about 10 times at the end and none of the welsh ones.

Positives, we were a lot better with a defensive midfielder on Williams should have started.

We drew the second half 1-1.

This was Cyprus all over again.

[Fixer82]

We actually tried to play football in the second half. There wasn't much hoofball at all. But we didn't have the ability to do that. Yet, when we constantly hoof the ball nobody is happy either.
Some of the decision making was truly awful and hard to watch. Not sure if the management are to blame for that.

Under Trap we were hard to beat before the wheels came off.
Under O'Neill we were hard to beat with an unbeatable spirit...it seems the wheels are coming off now.

You can only live off spirit and drive for so long.
in Euro 2016 we didn't have a whole lot of skill but we never gave up.

It's disappointing Hendrick and Brady haven't kicked on, for different reasons.

We are very very average.

Wales, to be fair were excellent tonight and really looked like a team who know each other very well.

[geysir]

Afaic we have already hit rock bottom v Denmark in both legs. This is a beginning of something new. Unfortunately, imo, this new period should be happening with another coach. I really like the look of all those new players, however
Ireland are not yet good enough to take on a better team away from home with no real defensive midfielders, in fact we need two of them along with more balance in player selection and shape in the play. If only O'Neill had taken on an assistant who was proficient in coaching and tactics, never mind what a waste the exorbitant salary that the tactically deficient Keane is retained on.

[TrapAPony]

MON is not the man to take us forward. He should have gone after the Danish defeat. Tonight just enhanced that point even further. Not many managers would survive in their job after a 5-1 home defeat followed up by a 4-1 away defeat in their next competitive outing. I am hoping the FAI will step in and remove him.

[NeverFeltBetter]

We always hold onto a manager one campaign too long. It would be nice to buck that trend for once.

[backstothewall]

I missed the start of the game as i was getting the kids to bed.

Watched the highlights there. The first 10 seconds tell you all you need to know about the game.

[mark12345]

MON is not the man to take us forward. He should have gone after the Danish defeat. Tonight just enhanced that point even further. Not many managers would survive in their job after a 5-1 home defeat followed up by a 4-1 away defeat in their next competitive outing. I am hoping the FAI will step in and remove him.

MON should have gone after the home draw versus Austria. A shocking managerial performance which turned my opinion against a man I spoke extremely highly of before that. If he should have been fired after that game he should have had to pay the fans back out of his own pocket after the away game in Georgia. His use of Hoolahan in the Denmark games was norhing short of attrcious. He should not have played Walters tonight (he should be retired) and the manager's tactics were predictably awful, but I cannot blame MON for the individual performances in Cardiff. Nor, Roy Keane. All of those seasoned professionals and not a constructive move in sight. At what point do we start blaming the players for their inability to keep possession of the ball and move it forward towards the opposition third.

Had Ireland been playing Shamorock Rovers or Dundalk in Cardiff, I would not have backed them to dominate either of those teams in terms of quality possession. Why because this Irish team is very low on individual ability and does not have the know how to cover their weaknesses.

[tricky_colour]

Heard the first half on the radio, glad I did not see it really, I did have a stream for the second half which was a draw but then
what did Wales have to play for at that stage.
I though Cairan Clark perhaps could have done better for the first two goals, let a player behind him and he should have
not let Bale run across the goal, but these things are easier said than done, when you are up against top players,
and you really need a pretty defensive midfield otherwise you are gonna get beat 4-1

[passinginterest]

I have a real nagging suspicion that sometimes the manager picks the team a certain way to make petty points. The 3-5-2 against Mexico just looked like throwing lads to the wolves to show he was open to trying different formations but the players are not up to it. Last night, didn't bother with a natural holding midfielder (oh we were missing the great hope Declan Rice, what could I do?) but Meyler is left on the bench. Christie right wing (James McLean is so important, we were lost without his workrate) but Horgan and Doherty are on the bench, could even have put Coleman in front of Christie or Doherty and it would have made more sense. Walters plays 90 up front (Oh we badly missed Shane Long's pace) but O'Brien on the bench and options with Robinson wide and Burke on the bench. Why pick a super attacking midfielder and stick a lumbering target man up front? Williams at the back for Wales has been a liability at club level for a year, he'd have potentially been very exposed playing it in around him and using pace in the channels, instead he had an easy night wrestling with big Johnny.

[Siberian]

Singing the Fields of Athenry when you're 4-0 down against Spain in the finals of a major tournament is a tad cringey................but singing it when you're 4 down against Wales in a Mickey Mouse competition?? major embarrassment.

Positive from tonight? Danish players have sorted their problem with their FA so we won't have to go through the embarrassment of getting beaten by their amputee team (or was it Futsal? :confused:)